IN THE WAKE OF THE ASSASSINS
The four shots that rang out in Phenix City, Alabama one June night in 1954 became headline news around the world. Crime had flourished in a sin town called the 'poor man's Las Vegas,' but when attorney general Albert Patterson was assassinated on a public street, Phenix City's mob days were numbered. John Patterson continued his father's crusade against crime while pursuing his father's killers. So launched a political career linked with John F. Kennedy and tainted by racial violence in the streets of Alabama.